President of UT Tyler announces retirement
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - The president of UT Tyler announced on Tuesday that he plans to retire in May.
UT Tyler President Kirk A. Calhoun sent out a letter-style announcement on Tuesday explaining his intention to retire at the end of the semester.
“With great appreciation for your enduring support, I am announcing today that I will retire as president of UT Tyler, effective May 31, 2024,” Calhoun said.
He continued by discussing his history with the college, and what his time there has meant to him.
“My wife, Jeanette, and I arrived in Tyler when I was appointed as the new president of the UT Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT) at age 49, some 22 years ago,” Calhoun said. “I was especially honored to be the inaugural president of the combined UT Tyler/UTHSCT in 2021. This has been a most unusual, incredibly lengthy, and joyous span of service for a public university president. Today I have served longer than any of the current UT presidents. They have been terrific colleagues to me. I appreciate the blessing of having such wonderful Tyler colleagues, a fantastic Board of Regents, and a talented UT System administration that has always supported my vision for Northeast Texas’s educational and healthcare future. We also would not be the university we are today without the monumental support from our alumni and donors. Several years ago, I told Board of Regents’ Chairman Kevin Eltife and Chancellor J.B. Milliken that with their support, I would enthusiastically serve into 2024. Many exciting accomplishments and advancements for UT Tyler have occurred in the intervening time since then. My greatest hope now is that I have served you well. It’s been the honor of a lifetime.”
“A good friend had a discussion with me over the weekend and he said, ‘The best time to leave is when very few people want you to go,’” Calhoun said in an interview with KLTV. “Everybody has a time, and discussing it with my wife and I, we just felt it was the right time for us.”
Calhoun’s leadership most recently saw the establishment of the UT Tyler Medical School.
“I can’t say enough about the UT system and what a powerful force it is, and the resources that the board of regents can bring bring to bear on an institution, and they certainly had that impact here,” he said.
Though Calhoun will surely be missed by students and faculty, he believes the university will continue to thrive.
“There are a lot of things that I think people thought were impossible, and we got them done. That’s the spirit of Tyler, that’s what I want Tyler to continue to pursue, and definitely I want UT Tyler to pursue that.”
Calhoun also spoke about his plans for the future.
“Thanks to my loving spouse and the constant support of my entire family, I was able to do exactly what I loved, and now Jeanette and I are excited to pursue other potential opportunities in life and business together,” he said. “I have been blessed to have countless and very meaningful relationships with academic, healthcare, corporate and government leaders. In leaving their roles to move on to their next opportunities, they shared two regrets with me. They wished they would have accomplished even more than they initially set out to do, and they missed the people who were kind enough to help them do the job they loved so much. I share those exact sentiments and many others too numerous to declare here. For those who are wondering what comes next for Jeanette and me, we plan to take a little time off to rest and celebrate after graduation, and to contemplate new opportunities. We will reach out to family members and old friends for inspiration and will enjoy nurturing many new and lifelong friendships. Jeanette will have her own thoughts on much that we’ll do, and as we have done since we met many years ago, we will support one another. I will continue to be driven by two prime motives that have consistently guided my life, including the pursuit of innovative ideas I have in business, education, and healthcare, and using my tenacity, eagerness, and profound passion to work with others to accomplish collaborative success. I thank God for these 22 years and ask his for good graces as we all go forward. I thank the Tyler, Texas community, our elected state and local leadership, and you for the support and friendship you have gifted to me. We’ve been through much together for the benefit of enhanced education and healthcare, and I’m so pleased with where we are to date on this road. I end with two quotes from Nelson Mandela. The first: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ The second is for my very special leadership team, our faculty, colleagues across UT Tyler and our Patriot alumni, ‘It always seems impossible until it is done.’ Keep doing the impossible. You’re doing big things. I will applaud you forever.”
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